Residents can visit and share their thoughts on the historic Curran House on Saturday in University Place.

The event takes place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. The house is located at 4009 Curran Lane W.

For the past year, University Place has wrestled with what to do with the historic property. It belonged to Charles and Mary Curran, longtime University Place residents and community supporters. Some UP residents would like to preserve the house for public use, although consultants say it isn’t worth saving.

I wrote about it in June.

CHIPS (Curran House Investigating and Planning Study Committee) organized Saturday’s event. "CHIPS, the UP Historical Society and hundreds of residents believe that this mid-century home, designed by renowned local architect, Robert B. Price, should be preserved for the community to enjoy and use for public purposes," according to a press release.

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Residents at the Waverly Farms and Villas and Cherry Creek Apartments are through complaining about the gang-bangers who’ve been messing with what should be a safe and pleasant summer.

With the help of Safe Streets’ Darren Pen, they’ve organized.

Tonight, they’re inaugurating the push with their first National Night Out.
Their complexes are among several east of Interstate 5 and north of South 96th Street, and they have a unique problem. Though most of their neighborhood is in Tacoma, they also have an orphan slice of Lakewood, across the freeway from the rest of the city.

Their management is responsible, responsive and tight with the police, but that’s not the case in all the complexes. Some allow gang members to live and do business in the neighborhood.

Residents have had armed thugs bust into their apartments. They’ve had taggers dueling with spray-paint on their fences. And you don’t want to know what’s been going on in the greenbelt.

Now that they’ve organized, Tacoma Police Community Liaison Officer Dan Hensley is looking into their complaints of slow police response. He’s given them resource lists of all the numbers to call, and coached them on how best to report a crime.

Jim Borah of the Neighborhood Councils is helping them with information on how to get traffic circles and speed bumps.

The core group invited the neighbors, including residents of the Woodmark Apartments, or a Safe Streets meeting two weeks ago.

“This whole neighborhood is so unsavory, it’s just pathetic,” said a Woodmark resident. “We had a shoot-out up here today at 3 p.m.”

They had another last Thursday.

This National Night Out Party is serious business. Lives depend on it.

In a quiet neighborhood in University Place, residents rallied to Laura-Elizabeth Boyle and Kayce Burdge’s cause with blankets for homeless people.
Boyle, who will be a senior at Bellarmine Prep, and Burdge, who will be a senior at Wilson High School are working toward their Gold Awards, the highest honor in the Girl Scouts.

When they read that Catholic Community Services was taking over and refurbishing what is now The Tacoma Avenue Shelter, they had their project. They contacted shelter director Jim Anderson and asked where they could fit into the work.

Anderson had plans to convert an old garage into a space where volunteers could serve dinner to shelter guests.

Perfect, said the girls.

They started gathering donations of materials, notably the paint and primer given by the Center Street Home Depot.

They spent their summer weekends pressure washing the interior, priming, then painting the walls. They pulled weeds in outdoor parking area, and they prettied up the whole site. Together, they spent 130 hours and transformed a grim space into a welcoming one.

But wait, they told each other. There’s more.

As they learned about the people who need the shelter, they began collecting blankets and bedding for them. They saw National Night Out as a prime chance for a blanket drive.

They organized the event for their cul-de-sac, spamming dorways with flyers, buying burgers and dogs for 200, and inviting their neighbors to bring side dishes, salads, drinks - and new and gently-used blankets.
Their goal: 45 blankets and sheet sets, and warmth for that many people.
They aren’t done yet.

Once back at school, they’ll launch drives for toiletries, games and other necessities.

“From this experience we have borth grasped a deeper understanding of what life on the streets is like, and how we can give back to those who are less fortunate,” they said in a note they wrote together,

Kevin Cavanagh with Pierce County Information Technology points out that the link we published in the printed paper for the weather tracker system left off one symbol.

The correct link is http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/PC/

If you can't bring it up, click here.

On the left side, it's titled "How hot is it?"

It's pretty cool. According to the site, "Eleven weather stations around the county record temperature, wind speed, relative humidity and more. Data is updated every 15 minutes."

Sustainable Saturday will be like an eco-daycation at two University Place sites.

From 9 to 1 p.m. this Saturday (July 18) volunteers will build a compost bin, install rain barrels and get the lowdown on how to identify and assassinate invasive plant species.

Participants can choose their site to match the skills they want to learn.

At Adriana Hess Wetlands Park, 2917 Morrison Rd. W., they'll build a compost bin and install rain barrels. There will likely be time for a briefing on weeds.

At the 3200 block of 67th Ave., near the Fircrest Golf Course, they'll concentrate on rousting the invader weeds to make room for native plants.

Want to play? Dress for mess, and bring work gloves and water.

Audubon's Together Green Volunteer Days are part of a national program that's organized 200 projects in 30-plus cities. Toyota helps bankroll the national effort. UP's Sustainable Saturday is co-sponsored by Tahom Audubon Society and University Place's Volunteer Center.

Need info? Call Julie Kerrigan at (253)-223-0039 or log in to one of the sponsors' sites: TogetherGreen at www.togethergreen.org; Tahoma Audubon Society at www.TahomaAudubon.or, or University Place Volunteer Center at www.upvolunteers.org.
The event

Eleven-year-old Drew Pepin will have the coolest response ever when people ask what he did over summer vacation.

He met President Obama.

Drew reports Obama has a strong handshake, and the Tacoma boy added, “He was very, very tall.”

Drew Pepin, 11, stands behind President Obama at the White House on June 23. Photo credit: Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

Drew and his parents, Kim and Scott Pepin, and 14-year-old sister Ally recently returned from a trip to Washington, D.C., where the boy was among 150 youths throughout the country at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Children’s Congress.

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Good news, dog owners who’ve wanted an off-leash area in University Place. Your wait is over.

On Thursday, Pierce County will set aside a temporary, one-acre area next to Chambers Bay Golf Course for canines to roam free.

The grand opening is scheduled from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday at the Central Meadow area along the Soundview Trail. The area will be fenced off, and owners will be required to pick up after their animals.

But the park is only temporary, and won’t be around come 2015, based on a contract between the county and University Place. The county has identified three areas in the Chambers Creek Properties master plan for off-leash dog areas.

The county will dedicate an off-leash area when a pedestrian overpass in the property’s North Beach area opens late next year. A six-acre, off-leash area on the south side of the property, the largest and most-anticipated of future off-leash areas, won't be completed for another five years.

The SUNDogs group (Safe, Unleashed, Natural Dogs), which partnered with Pierce County and University Place to open the temporary park, said local dog owners couldn’t wait another five years.

The group raised $12,000 to prepare the site and help monitor the interior of the fenced area.

Thursday’s grand opening will feature informational displays for Chambers Creek Properties, SUNDogs, University Place animal control and the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County.
For more information or to donate money for the temporary park, visit www.updogpark.org.

Doris Jairala has been a faithful bus rider the past five years, taking the 53 route a few times a week to get to her housekeeping jobs.

Driving isn't an option for the 62-year-old University Place resident. She suffers from seizures and isn't allowed to get behind the wheel.

(To the left: Doris Jairala, of University Place, rides the Number 53 bus to her job as a housekeeper last month. The route will be eliminated in July as Pierce Transit reduces less-used routes such as hers. Joe Barrentine/The News Tribune)

So that means for her job, she hops on the bus to Lakewood, Steilacoom, UP and any other community in which her work takes her.

But she will be one of the thousands of riders who will have to find a new bus beginning July 12. Pierce Transit, squeezed by the economic downturn, opted to eliminate or reduce service on routes throughout the county that don't have a high ridership.

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University Place won't demolish the aging but historic house at the Curran Apple Orchard after all.

Instead, a volunteer group of history and architecture enthusiasts will work to raise money to convert the 1950s-era building into a museum.

After almost a year of discussions, the University Place City Council voted last week not to demolish the house, which was designed by award-winning Tacoma architect Robert B. Price.

(To the right is a News Tribune photo of the house taken last year by Chris Anderson.)

Now, the Curran House Investigating and Planning Study group - CHIPS for short - will determine the cost of making the house museum-ready. They say it will be tens of thousands of dollars less than the $125,000 estimate from city staff last year.

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After a week of unseasonably hot weather, this morning was cool and overcast in University Place, with just enough drizzle to remind you this is the Northwest, not South Florida.

In other words, it was perfect weather for ducks.

And ducks were everywhere today in University Place, which celebrated its 10th annual Duck Daze with a parade, a fire department open house and other festivities.

There were duck hats and duck visors. There were stuffed toy ducks and duck umbrellas. There were even duck mittens.

“I’ve got a bag of these things,” said Ray Dotson as he entertained children along the parade route with his mittens. “They go on sale after Easter.”

The parade along Bridgeport Way had all the usual elements: Boy Scouts, classic cars, horses and politicians scattering candy along the road for tots to scoop up.

At the city’s public safety building, firefighters showed off their shiny red engines to eager youngsters. Four-year-old Jessiah Jameson brought a book about fire trucks and leafed through it with firefighter Mark Oster. Jessiah, accompanied by mom Erin Jameson, couldn’t contain his enthusiasm for all things fire truck.

“Another fire truck!” he exclaimed as he surveyed his surroundings.

Nearby, dozens of vendors sold crafts, jewelry and other assorted wares. And families munched on hot dogs, potato chips and cake at the fire station.

But it was the ducks that set this festival apart.

Dixie Harris – sporting assorted duck paraphernalia today – helped found the first Duck Daze a decade ago. She saw a chance to bring University Place residents together to celebrate the end of the rainy season.

So why ducks?

“We just decided on ducks,” Harris said. “Everybody likes ducks.”

Curran Apple Orchard house

The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation has just put out its list of most endangered historic properties for 2009, and one structure from the South Sound is on it: The Curran Apple Orchard house in University Place.

The TNT has previously written about the 1952-designed house, the work of esteemed Tacoma mid-century-modern architect Robert B. Price.

Now local activists trying to save it from the wrecking ball have gotten a boost from the state historic trust organization. The design is special, according to the state group ...

But what sets it apart, and provides the agricultural connection, is the setting: The house is situated within an orchard providing a unique example of early western Washington apple horticulture. This combination deems the property eligible for listing in the Washington Heritage Register, and if listed, would be the first Price-designed resource to achieve such designation.

University Place gave local preservationists until this spring to come up with a plan to save the structure from demolition. Next steps for the Curran House will be discussed during a City Council study session on June 8 at 7 p.m., according to city officials.

After UP became a city in 1995, it took control of Curran park from Pierce County, and the house was rented out. It has sat vacant for more than a year.

The city has said it would cost $125,000 to renovate as a residence, and even more to convert it to a public-use building.

There are several other endangered properties on this year's Washington Trust list, including the Seattle Post-Intelligencer globe and the old Vashon Island school gym.

The attention that comes with making the list is no guarantee of salvation. In Tacoma, for instance, the Japanese Language School was torn down in 2004 and First United Methodist Church in 2007.

Fear not, University Place canines (and their owners) yearning for a restraint-free romp in your back yard.

Pierce County has agreed to provide an off-leash doggy area at Chambers Creek Properties, near the Central Meadow.

The county already designated three areas on the University Place property for off-leash areas, but they are at least a few years away from opening.

The deal was struck last month between the county, University Place and SUNDogs, the volunteer group that will pay for the improvements to the area at Central Meadow. It will remain an off-leash area until 2015. (To the right is a map that shows the approximate location of temporary dog area)

It's not much, according SUNDogs member and UP City Councilwoman Debbie Klosowski. The space measures less than an acre in size.

Still, the group is thankful to the county. Look for the print version of this story in the coming days.